THURSDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2014
Firstly, Wall and her fellow researchers came up with a method to quantify the texture of volcanic rock using an index called ‘groundmass crystallinity’. According to Wall the texture of volcanic rock is like the texture of a chocolate chip cookie, it varies according to method of cooking and cooling. "We were interested in the cookie dough part of the cookie,” she said.
Wall compared her samples to those found by Curiosity rover on marsUnfortunately, she discovered that all the rocks analyzed by Curiosity were similar in structure the volcanic rocks on earth that had not formed in the presence of water. This indicated that there was no water on Mars at the time of formation of any of the analyzed rocks. However, Wall has still made a great achievement as this same method can be used to look for water elsewhere.
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6090
Written by Caroline Steel.
![](mailto:?subject=New method for finding water on mars&body=https://bluesci.soc.srcf.net/posts/new-method-for-finding-water-on-mars <span style="text-align: justify;">Firstly, Wall and her fellow researchers came up with a method to quantify the texture of volcanic rock using an index called ‘groundmass crystallinity’. According to Wall the texture of volcanic rock is like the texture of a chocolate chip cookie, it varies according to method of cooking and cooling. "We were interested in the cookie dough part of the cookie,” she said.</span><br><br><div class='caption'><div id="attachment_12253" align="alignright" width="300"><a href="https://bluesci.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/145-IMage.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-12253" alt="Wall compared her samples to those found by Curiosity rover on mars" src="https://bluesci.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/145-IMage-300x300.jpg" width="300" height="300" /></a> Wall compared her samples to those found by Curiosity rover on mars</div></div><span style="text-align: justify;">When liquid volcanic rock hits water it rapidly cools and flash freezes to form mostly glass. When there is no water it takes longer to cool and crystals form. The body of the rock is the dough and the chocolate chips are the crystals. Using an X-ray diffraction machine on Washington University campus, Wall analyzed basalt samples from all over the world and compared it to the volcanic rock analyzed by the Curiosity rover on mars.</span><br><br><span style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, she discovered that all the rocks analyzed by Curiosity were similar in structure the volcanic rocks on earth that had not formed in the presence of water. This indicated that there was no water on Mars at the time of formation of any of the analyzed rocks. However, Wall has still made a great achievement as this same method can be used to look for water elsewhere.</span><br><br><span style="text-align: justify;">DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6090</span><br><br><span style="text-align: justify;">Written by Caroline Steel.</span>){kind=link}